Pittsburgh suffered two disappointing losses to the Bruins at CONSOL Energy Center this season, dropping both contests after having a two-goal lead in the third period.

This time the Penguins would not be denied, holding on for a 3-2 victory in Boston’s TD Garden to finish the job.

“I like the fact that we refocused,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “They’ve come back against us before. To refocus, come out and get the lead in the third, there were some scrambles at times, but we held the fort and got the win. Two big points for us.”

“They got some points from us last time we played them,” goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. “It was good to get those points tonight.”

The Penguins were up 4-2 in the third period Nov. 10, but fell 7-4. Pittsburgh held a 2-0 lead Monday before falling by a count of 4-2.

But there would be no Bruins comeback in this contest, thanks to 20 saves by Fleury in the third period and a season-high 44 total stops in the game.

“Fleury really stood on his head in the third period,” Jordan Staal said. “He got us those two points.”

STAAL CONTINUES TO ROLL Jordan Staal continues to surge offensively. Following his three-point performance at Montreal Wednesday, Staal scored a goal and added an assist against the Bruins to give him five points over his past two games.

Staal set up the Penguins’ first goal with a pretty pass to Chris Kunitz, who converted the shot in the slot. Staal netted the game-winner 3:25 into the third period to break a 2-2 tie by whacking a backhander from the crease past goaltender Tuukka Rask.

“It wasn't pretty; I was just getting to the net,” Staal said of his goal. “We needed one like that.”

13-SECOND SCARE The Penguins did have a scare during a 13-second span in the second period. Pittsburgh held a 2-0 lead in the second frame, but Boston's Dennis Seidenberg and Michael Ryder scored two goals just 13 seconds apart to pull even.

“Better then than in the third period,” Staal said. “They do a pretty good job with momentum. We settled down between the periods and got back to our game. Better at that time than with five minutes left in the third.”

Bylsma called a timeout to settle the troops and his move worked. The Penguins bucked up on defense and were able to keep Boston off the scoreboard the rest of the way.

“I don’t like having a timeout in my hand at the end of the game,” Bylsma said. “It’s 2-2 and we played a lot of good hockey in that second period at our pace. We gave up two goals, but had time to get our heads straight. Guys did that for sure.”

BIZARRE SEQUENCE OF EVENTSThere was an interesting penalty call in the opening seconds of the second period. Pascal Dupuis scored 41 seconds after the puck dropped to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead, but then a bizarre play occurred 16 seconds later.

Dupuis was tangled with Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara. Boston’s Steven Kampfer was then struck in the face by the stick of Chara and fell to the ice bleeding. The referees held up their arm to call a penalty, but the Penguins had possession of the puck and no whistle was blown.

Dupuis was called for a four-minute double-minor penalty, even though it wasn’t his stick that hit Kampfer.

“I was shocked big time,” Dupuis said. “The play should have stopped right away when we had the puck for five, six seconds. We passed, got a shot, tried for the shot. We had the puck the whole time. Fleury came out of the net. That’s how weird the penalty was.”

The Penguins’ PK unit stepped up at that critical point in the game and successfully killed off the four minutes.

“The ref came back and said he made a mistake,” Staal said. “Our team did a great job of digging in and killing off what we had there. We didn’t complain. We just went out and worked hard.”